On A Mission

Colin Powell made his mark in public life. Now he's giving back to students at CCNY

By Neill S. Rosenfeld

M aybe it was because he grew up during World War II and came of
age during the Korean conflict, times when a blue star in the
window meant that someone was in the military and a gold star meant
that someone had been killed. Or because war movies made indelible
impressions during his youth. Or his conclusion that if he were to
get drafted, he might as well go in as an officer. Or just seeing
so many young men in uniform stride across the City College campus.

Whatever the reason (and his autobiography mentions all of those),
in 1954 Colin Powell signed up for City College's Army Reserve
Officer Training Corps (ROTC) — a decision that set him on the path
toward becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S.
secretary of state and a philanthropist who supports a City College
public policy center that's named after him. "I found my career and
my life's work at CCNY," Powell said. "When I finished my military
career and went out into private life, I wanted to try to give back
to young people who are like me, coming up in modest or
disadvantaged circumstances."

His involvement with students began in earnest in 1997 after he had
retired from the Army. Presidents Carter, Clinton, Ford and George
H.W. Bush, as well as former first lady Nancy Reagan, asked him to
chair the Presidents' Summit for America's Future, then to create
America's Promise — The Alliance for Youth, a foundation that works
with companies, nonprofits and governments across the country to
help children and youth. That prompted him to make his first City
College endowment, the Maud and Luther Powell America's Promise
Scholarship, which is aimed at City College students who perform
community or public service.

Also that year, New York City's Rudin Family Foundation paid
tribute to the general by launching the Colin Powell Center for
Policy Studies at City College. Its goals are to develop leaders
from underrepresented groups and to bridge the academic and
policy-making spheres through research and programs.

Because of his work with America's Promise and his later return to
government, Powell at first did not have time to engage with the
Powell Center. But after his four-year hitch as secretary of state
ended in January 2005, "I went up to see what was going on at this
center that had my name at my alma mater. I met with 10 or 12
youngsters in the president's conference room, and they told me
what they were doing and what the center was doing for them. They
were from everywhere imaginable in the world. I said to them, 'You
kids look like I was 50 years ago.' That is when I decided I wanted
to get more actively involved."

He hopes that the Powell Fellows emerge with an expansive vision of
society. "We want to get young people involved in serving others.
We send them around the world on fellowships and programs to learn
what is happening and to expand the base of knowledge and
experience of inner-city kids so that they understand the broader
world," he said.

For example, Renee Rolston spent last summer at a district health
office in Malawi, working on HIV/AIDS and malaria. She expects to
graduate this spring from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical
Education as part of a seven-year BS-MD program, which she intends
to finish at New York Medical College.

Powell uses his personal connections to further the fellows'
education. "We send students to sit and talk with Henry Kissinger
[the former secretary of state who is on the center's advisory
council] in his office about foreign policy. I sent a bunch of
youngsters down to Leonard Lauder [the chair of Estée Lauder Inc.]
and I said, 'Leonard, I do not want you to give them all of that
Horatio Alger stuff [about how his mother started the company].
They can tell you their Horatio Alger stories. What I want you to
tell them is: How do you make money in business?'"

If Powell has one regret about City College, it might be that it
ended the ROTC program in June 1972, at the height of anti-war
sentiment on American campuses. From a high of 1,500 cadets during
the Korean War, enrollment had plunged to 81 in its last year. "In
a country where civilian control of the military is fundamental, I
found it unfortunate to have this source of citizen officers
reduced," Powell wrote in his 1995 autobiography, My American
Journey.

"Friendships that I formed there are still alive and well 55 years
later," he told Salute to Scholars. He was a geology major, but
ROTC "showed me a way of moving forward and something to do with my
life and something that I was good at." ROTC "led me to hang
around, even though my grades were not great. Then they sent me out
to the Army and said good luck."

Powell is helping to assure good luck for today's students by
putting $1 million into the center while helping with fund-raising.

Other grants include $10 million from the New York Life Foundation
in 2006 to endow scholarships and programs related to
African-American issues and, most recently, $1 million from the
Korea Foundation for policy and service lessons rooted in the
Korean experience.

"Townsend Harris [the founder of The Free Academy that became City
College] said that the children of the poor and the children of the
rich should sit together in brotherhood and learning," Powell said.
"To keep that spirit alive takes money. It is wonderful that the
taxpayers of New York State and New York City are willing to fund
such a system of public higher education, but we need to get more
private philanthropy involved. Those of us who have been successful
in life have an obligation to reach down to those who wonder
whether or not they can be successful."

Powell on Immigration

The nonpartisan Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies chooses its
fellows through a competitive process. Scholarships and fellowships
offer up to $12,000 for undergraduates for each of two years and
one-time grants of $15,000 for graduate students to support
scholarship, research and internships.

Students participate in service learning, in which they volunteer
or intern in a public service setting. The Powell Center also has
shown City College faculty members how to weave service learning
into courses ranging from architecture to public relations writing.

Students receive professional mentoring and participate in the
center's policy programs. Its core initiatives are urban issues in
New York City; leadership and philanthropy; democracy assistance;
and multilateral diplomacy and international organizations.

The students focus on a different theme each year. This year it was
immigration, the subject of a February conference where experts in
immigration policy and advocates for immigrant rights discussed the
challenges and opportunities facing both immigrants and the society
they are joining.

At the conference, Powell spoke of his immigrant heritage — his
parents were Jamaican — and the importance of public higher
education.

"Few experiences bind people to the life of their society more than
the process of getting an education," he said. If you didn't
succeed, he added with humor, "There was no greater curse … than
for one of your relatives … to say, 'What, you have shamed the
family.'

"Hit me, beat me, do anything you want, but don't give me that
shame, because they had dreams, they had expectations for you."

Immigrants are often portrayed as posing threats to safety and
American jobs while the reality is that most work hard, succeed and
contribute to the economy.

Yes, Powell argued, strengthen the borders, but also devise
policies to develop the economies of the neighboring countries and
make "a sensible decision" about who should be allowed into this
country and under what circumstances. "We can neither throw open
our borders entirely nor can we shut them down completely. We must
rather think about the rights and roles of new Americans and
temporary residents in relationship to our broader interests of
security, prosperity and democracy," he said.

Master's student and Powell Fellow Easter Wood found the conference
and the focus on immigration stimulating.

"I have been a student of African-American studies, but I had not
thought as much about the intertwinement between immigrant
populations and the African-American population," she said. She
particularly appreciated "the opportunities to meet with dynamic
people and get to talk to those who are out there on the front
lines in the policy field and doing the work that I hope to be
doing."